PUSD board to vote Tuesday on budget cuts

The public is welcome to attend the meeting that begins at 5 p.m. in the district office board room at 146 South Granite Street in Prescott.

As of last week, figures indicated the district faces $2.01 million in projected budget cuts, but $944,000 in possible funding could reduce the cuts to $1.06 million, said Chief Financial Officer Renee Raskin.

Also, the board may go into an executive session to discuss a revision to the maintenance and operations portion of the budget for the current school year requested by the Arizona Department of Education, then return to public session to consider approving the revision.

The revised M&O would increase $245,055 - which includes a $29,860 decrease in tuition revenue, a $298,097 increase in unrestricted capital transferred to M & O, and a $23,182 decrease in budget balance carry forward, Raskin said.

The state reduced unrestricted capital at the beginning of this fiscal year, then in April the state revised this reduction by $206,357, Raskin said.

Also affecting the M&O budget, the state changed the Arizona State Retirement System split between employer and employee from 50 percent employer and 50 percent employee to 47 percent employer and 53 percent employee this year, Raskin said.

The district was not allowed to use this difference as a savings; therefore, the district had to reduce its budget by $91,740, Raskin said.

The legislature is considering enacting a law to return that money to the employees, so the district has been instructed to increase its budget by this amount, Raskin said.

The board also will consider approving the sale of furnishings of the Dexter school, valued at $30,180, to Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy which has leased the site since June 2010, as well as a one-year lease to the school to rent the Dexter facility for $8,000 per month.

In other business, the board will consider approving:

 The renewal of the request for proposal for Southwest Foodservice Excellence as the district's food service management company. This item was postponed from the May 1 meeting until Southwest Foodservice Excellence created a budget.

 A general statement of assurances for the Arizona Department of Education, which assures federal and state regulations compliance and allows certain staff to have log-in access to ADE-required reports.